Adam Hull

Hemel Town boss Dean Brennan heaped praise on his depleted side after they secured a valuable 1-0 victory over Eastbourne Borough on Tuesday night.

Sean Shields struck the winner in first-half stoppage time to secure the three points for Hemel as they leapfrogged their opponents into 10th place in the National League South table.

We are now unbeaten in four which is what we wanted to do – we wanted to make ourselves harder to beat.

Hemel Town FC manager Dean Brennan

Brennan had to borrow three players from Dacorum neighbours Kings Langley in order to fill his squad, with Hemel showing good character to dig deep despite their ongoing injury crisis.

“It’s an unbelievable achievement from everyone at the football club again, because we have won the game with a patched-up side, so I give everybody praise,” said Brennan.

“We were a little bit scruffy at times and not as fluent as we have been, but there were no individual errors and the players stuck to the gameplan.

“I thought we should have been further ahead at half-time, but credit to the lads because our goalie hasn’t had to make a save, and that’s what you want as a manager.

“We are now unbeaten in four which is what we wanted to do – we wanted to make ourselves harder to beat.

“We haven’t been as fluent as we could be, and don’t get me wrong, I want to play to my exact philosophy, but we just don’t have the players available at this present moment.

“But the players who have come in have acquitted themselves really well. We’ve just gone to Havant and won, and then beat Eastbourne tonight – they are two big clubs in this division so full credit to everybody.”

Next up for the Tudors is a home clash with in-form Truro City, and Brennan added: “We’re going to have to get another player in because Greeny (Reiss Greenidge) has picked up a bad injury so tonight is positive in one sense but negative in another.

“I think we are down to 12 fit players, so let’s see who we can get in. The team spirit is good, we are all sticking together, and we will just move on to the next game.”